Wildcats expecting balanced attack

Tuesday

Nov 25, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 26, 2008 at 3:43 AM

Hilliard Davidson High School girls basketball coach Lisa Cady doesn't deny that the Wildcats lost their top offensive player (Carmen Reynolds) and their top defensive player (Caitlyn Martin) to graduation.

Hilliard Davidson High School girls basketball coach Lisa Cady doesn't deny that the Wildcats lost their top offensive player (Carmen Reynolds) and their top defensive player (Caitlyn Martin) to graduation.

Reynolds, who is playing at the University of Michigan, scored a single-season program-record 381 points and scored a program-record 1,075 points for her career. She averaged 16.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.5 steals last season and was the OCC-Buckeye Division Player of the Year, first-team all-district and second-team all-state.

Despite losing those two players and three others, Cady said she doesn't see any reason why Davidson can't equal or better its 19-4 record from last season.

The Wildcats will open Saturday at home against Pickerington Central and play Tuesday at Watterson.

"We lost two great players who brought a lot to our team, but they weren't our whole team," Cady said. "A lot of people have been writing us off because we don't have Carmen anymore, but I don't think those same people expected much from us last year after we had finished (4-18 in 2006-07). With a lot of hard work, we can be right where we were. I think we're going to surprise some people."

Also playing in the post will be senior Alex Blackmon (5-10) and junior Megan Epps (6-0). Sophomores Kelsey Sicker (5-6) and Kendra Van Horn (5-5) will play on the wing. Caton averaged 3.3 points last season.

"Our scoring is probably going to be more spread out, instead of us relying on one person like we did with Carmen," Cheese said. "Our goal is to play good pressure defense and win that way. Me and Onders are going to try to pressure the other team's guards the way Caitlyn did last year."

Davidson set a program record for points in one game during its opening 82-41 win over Westland a year ago.

The Wildcats also swept Darby 46-44 and 50-30 after losing to the Panthers twice the previous season. But Davidson was 0-3 against Dublin teams during the regular season, losing to Scioto 64-59 and losing to Coffman 58-54 and 48-40.

The losses to the Shamrocks were costly as Coffman won the OCC-Buckeye Division at 10-0 ahead of Davidson (8-2), Reynoldsburg (6-4), Grove City (3-7), Upper Arlington (3-7) and Westerville North (0-10).

The Wildcats will compete in the OCC-Central this season along with Central Crossing, Coffman, Darby, Thomas Worthington, Upper Arlington, Westland and Worthington Kilbourne.

The Wildcats opened Division I district tournament play with a 66-55 win over Lancaster before beating Gahanna 59-49 and losing to Coffman 59-49 in a final.

"Coffman has everybody back, and Darby and UA always have strong teams, too," Cady said. "Everyone is expecting Coffman to be league champs, but I think we'll compete for it again. Defense wins games, and if we can disrupt what the other team is doing, we'll win games. We don't have as much depth as we had last year, but we have more quickness and we'll be looking to score more in transition."

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